I'm genuinely incredibly jealous. Canada is very high on my list of places to visit, for the sole purpose of seeing wildlife and exploring huge remote wilderness areas.

Sadly I'm amazingly poor at the moment, but next time I've have some spare cash I'll definitely be going bear, orca, wolf and moose hunting. Maybe even try to see some Canadian beavers whilst I'm there

ETA: We are again facing a cull of boar without any certainty of their numbers. Estimates seems to vary wildly between 150-200 through to 650+. The Forestry Commission have decided that they need to cull 100 boar between now and January, this could have a potentially devastating effect on the boar population. Please sign and forward the petition to suspend this cull for 12 months to help us get a better idea of how many boar there really are.

I went out armed with my 7D looking for birds and wildlife this morning. Nothing with any legs worth photographing (unless you want to see my tripod ) so the best I could manage is a shot of late summer flowers:

I went out armed with my 7D looking for birds and wildlife this morning. Nothing with any legs worth photographing (unless you want to see my tripod ) so the best I could manage is a shot of late summer flowers:

I went out armed with my 7D looking for birds and wildlife this morning. Nothing with any legs worth photographing (unless you want to see my tripod ) so the best I could manage is a shot of late summer flowers:

I went out armed with my 7D looking for birds and wildlife this morning. Nothing with any legs worth photographing (unless you want to see my tripod ) so the best I could manage is a shot of late summer flowers:

Himalayan Balsam, Kill it, kill it with fire!

Just a wild flower to me. Care to explain?

Himalayan Balsam is an introduced species because it grows easily and looks nice in gardens - I admit it is quite pretty. Found natively in the Himalayas (surprisingly!) it seems to do exceptionally well here and is now one of the most persistant, destructive, rapidly spreading and difficult to manage invasive species in the country.

Takes over whole riverbanks (leaving no room for any native plants at all) then dies off leaving a completely exposed river bank that then washes away as soon as there's some rain/high flow.

On the plus side it does pull up very easily and is quite satisfying to do it - try it next time, get a firm grip and pull. Their roots are amazingly small and shallow, even on the 12-15foot monsters

Himalayan Balsam is an introduced species because it grows easily and looks nice in gardens - I admit it is quite pretty. Found natively in the Himalayas (surprisingly!) it seems to do exceptionally well here and is now one of the most persistant, destructive, rapidly spreading and difficult to manage invasive species in the country.

Takes over whole riverbanks (leaving no room for any native plants at all) then dies off leaving a completely exposed river bank that then washes away as soon as there's some rain/high flow.

On the plus side it does pull up very easily and is quite satisfying to do it - try it next time, get a firm grip and pull. Their roots are amazingly small and shallow, even on the 12-15foot monsters

Well I didn't know that, thanks As it happens, this was the only bit of colour along the riverside in our village which hadn't been washed away by the flooding last week. I take your point about it's invasive nature but, given the circumstances, I was glad to see it.